Sunday, April 16, 2006

Free as in Freedom

Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Sam Williams is also availabe on Project Gutenberg, other than on the original website.

An except from the Preface:
The work of Richard M. Stallman literally speaks for itself. From the documented source code to the published papers to the recorded speeches, few people have expressed as much willingness to lay their thoughts and their work on the line. [...]

For the readers who have decided to trust a few hours of their time to exploring this book, I can confidently state that there are facts and quotes in here that one won't find in any Slashdot story or Google search. Gaining access to these facts involves paying a price, however. In the case of the book version, you can pay for these facts in the traditional manner, i.e., by purchasing the book. In the case of the electronic versions, you can pay for these facts in the free software manner. Thanks to the folks at O'Reilly & Associates, this book is being distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License, meaning you can help to improve the work or create a personalized version and release that version under the same license.

The last time Richard Stallman was here in Singapore for some Linux related stuff, the local press reported that he charged a buck (which goes towards the GNU project) for every autograph.

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